Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[Mike]

The consensus seems to be that the middle stretch is the best (Wont Tell - Upper Hand - WFS) but my favorite parts are the first three and last three songs.

[Ms Harmless]

anyone else feel like the first 1-2 punch conjures Binaural?

Scared of Fear - Breakerfall
React, Respond - God's Dice

[Blenheim Augustine]

Does the digital album drop on 19th local time or at EST/PST or something? In New Zealand hoping for the former but accustomed to disappointment.

[Birds in Hell]

Does the digital album drop on 19th local time or at EST/PST or something? In New Zealand hoping for the former but accustomed to disappointment.

Going by the singles, it should be the former.

[Smoothieking10]

Hi again! I say again because I have been coming here since the B&P days! I don’t post these days but still read the board once every couple weeks. I always laughed when a new leak dropped over the years because of all the new 1 post requests for the leak. And now here I am lol! Can I can get a pm from anyone pointing me in the direction of this greatness going on? I would be over joyed to get to spend my day in Pearl Jam heaven 1 day early! My theater volume in Columbus was awful! Couldn’t hear Jeff at all.

[stip]

I can't wait for Stip's giant essay on this album.

Hopefully late Friday

[daft twat]

The drums at the beginning of Got to Give psyche me into thinking they’re about to play Hard to Handle by the Black Crowes.

[stip]

Mike, what did you think overall?

[Ms Harmless]

this album has some of the twinkly bridges that I enjoyed from Lightning Bolt, but with much better songs around them

[Mike]

Mike, what did you think overall?

Extremely pleasantly surprised. I was very worried after the first two singles that this album could become my least favorite of theirs so far. I don't think there were singles of previous albums I liked less.
My overall impression is that this is their poppiest and hookiest collection of songs so far. Most songs are VERY immediate and instantly likeable. For modern day Pearl Jam I was always more drawn the less rocking songs, so Dark Matter and Running and the talk about this being their heaviest in a long time had me worried. So color me surprised that most songs are completely different.
I posted my initial ranking somewhere on the previous pages. Something along these lines:

Love:
Wreckage
Won't Tell
Something Special
Got To Give
Setting Sun

Good:
Scared Of Fear
React/Response
Upper Hand
Waiting For Stevie

Ok:
Dark Matter
Running

The album has extremely strong performances and feels overall very un-edited (in song structure, not so much in production). The production is still damping my enjoyment quite a bit but I love it so far. My only worries are that the songs are so immediate and hooky that the initial enjoyment might wear off after a while. But that is really hard to tell. Right now I'm loving it and it's just the album I need (working a job I dont like and being in the process of applying for a new job which is just annoying). A very hopeful and open-hearted delight. Another worry is that I might get a little bit tired of all the extended outros with the very improvised sounding solos. But time will tell.

[Ms Harmless]

there are two "fixing" lyrics on the album, but one is much more desperate than hopeful, and the other is on the other side of The Fixer's hope (disappointment)

[Vitalogy79]

I honestly believe the 10 club is sending out the vinyl orders late to force the streaming numbers to look even better for the album on the streaming platforms.

Doesn’t mean I agree with that, but that’s what I think is going on

[Lmdmusic]

My shipping just updated for the 10c exclusive vinyl, arriving Monday at best

[Aunt_Claire_Foy]

Not sure if this has been pointed out but…

NO FADES.

Watt is truly a fan.

[Arthur Morgan]

My shipping just updated for the 10c exclusive vinyl, arriving Monday at best

Same here, Monday

They couldn’t just put in the mail this past Monday

[Arthur Morgan]

this album has some of the twinkly bridges that I enjoyed from Lightning Bolt, but with much better songs around them

Funny you say that. It’s like Lightning Bolt the sequel but done WAY better

[DeeDee]

The consensus seems to be that the middle stretch is the best (Wont Tell - Upper Hand - WFS) but my favorite parts are the first three and last three songs.

The first three are absolutely brilliant, and the last two are amazing too.

[DeeDee]

anyone else feel like the first 1-2 punch conjures Binaural?

Scared of Fear - Breakerfall
React, Respond - God's Dice

I don't see it. Breakerfall is straightforward and God's Dice is way more punk than React, respond. I'd compare Scared of Fear to Life Wasted and React, respond to Got Some/My Father's son but 100 times better.

[DeeDee]

The 'we used to laugh, we used to sing...' bit is just pure bliss to me.

All the feels.

[Rob]

The drums at the beginning of Got to Give psyche me into thinking they’re about to play Hard to Handle by the Black Crowes.

I noticed this on the first listen and after many more I can still feel my brain anticipating those first few notes from Hard to Hande every time.